The luck of the Irish shines on Ayo Edebiri, but on Conan O’Brien — not so much.
The comedian commended The Bear star for her ongoing commitment to a bit in which she pretends to be Irish, lamenting that because of it, she’s “revered by the Irish people” while he’s “rightfully loathed” (despite actually being Irish), he said on the latest episode of his podcast Conan O’ Brien Needs a Friend.
The joke in question started in March 2023 at the South By Southwest Film Festival, during an interview with Letterboxd. In it, Edebiri slipped in and out of an Irish accent as she joked that she played the role of Jenny the donkey in the Ireland-set Oscar nominee The Banshees of Inisherin.
Edebiri continued the bit in later red carpet interviews and appearances, which O’Brien on his podcast specifically praised her on.
“I wanted to congratulate you, because you started this joke which you improvised, a joke about being Irish, and then you kept going,” he said. “And there’s this crucial point where a joke either becomes like, ‘Okay that’s enough, I’ve done it enough, I should stop,’ or you double, triple, and quadruple down on it and refuse to let it go — which you did.”
“Now it has resonated so much that the people of Ireland have accepted you as one of their own, which they will not do with me,” O’Brien continued. “I am this figure of great shame in Ireland. But you, you got a day in Boston, and you’re revered by the Irish people. I am rightfully loathed by the Irish and never a day in Boston.”
(Earlier this year, Boston mayor Michelle Wu declared April 10, 2025, to be Ayo Edebiri Day, which recognized the star’s achievements and her influence on Boston youth as a native of the city and a graduate of Boston Latin School herself.)
Of her joke’s origins, Edebiri told O’Brien, “I remember talking about this with a friend. I was like, ‘My favorite type of joke low-key might be a lie.’ Like, something where it’s almost not even funny, it’s mostly just funny to me.”
She recalled that during the now-iconic SXSW red carpet interview, she assumed her publicist thought she was on the verge of a “mental breakdown.”
“I remember in that moment I saw my PR. She was at the corner of my eye and she was kind of like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no,’ because I was just, it was nonsense,” Edebiri said. “It was just me being like, oh yeah I was up in Ireland and I was kind of chilling and she was like, ‘OK, mental breakdown on the horizon.’ I don’t know, it just kept going. But then other Irish people, too, have been like, ‘What’s up?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, what’s up?'”
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As for O’Brien, who is, in fact, very Irish and also from Boston, Edebiri told him not to lose faith, that he’ll earn the respect of the Irish and fellow Bostonians.
“I think your day could come is what I’ll say about that,” Edebiri said.
Watch the full interview with Edebiri and O’Brien above.
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